The back of my mind

So i’m pretty inclined toward Predestination, as far as doctrines of salvation go, but a question is bugging me, always in the back of my mind. How does a doctrine of predestination that assumes that not all are saved, jive with the belief in an all-loving God?

Marionette or spinning the strings?

Being a student of the Queen of the Sciences can often be trying. You wrestle with difficult issues and wrangle with profs whose lectures are often an extended confession of their beliefs. And when those really contentious issues come up, like homosexuality and the means of salvation, spirited debate can waver precariously over the abyss of acrimony. One of the more volatile issues, and one over which I myself have lost some sleep, is free will vs. predestination.

Is salvation only available to God’s elect, an elite group whose membership was determined by the Almighty at the very moment of creation, or does our salvation require our participation? I remember a professor (and Roman Catholic priest) who told me about the many Saints who, in their private memoirs, speak of their great terror at their own power to say no to God. Now, not that I care particularly about the assumptions of modern Roman Catholic hagiography, but that raised in my mind an interesting question: do I have the power to say no to God?

Some would argue that it is precisely this power which caused the Fall: God’s greatest and most horrible gift to humankind of free will. Obviously I don’t mean the Fall as in the Genesis narrative of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, I mean the fact that humanity, because of our gift of free will, falls easily into sin. God gave the power to choose to follow Him or not, and we must exercise that power as we see fit, it is our gift and out curse as beings created in God’s own image.

The flip side of the coin is Predestination – John Calvin’s most famous and controversial doctrine. God controls everything, He created us and the circumstances in which we exist, therefore everything that happens is exactly what and how He wanted it. Our salvation was determined long before we were born, and nothing we can do will ever change it. Now to Calvin this was a comforting doctrine – we need not worry after our salvation, nor throw our money away on indulgences and donations to the Church, God’s plan will unfold just exactly as it should and were are just along for the ride.

Each side posses a certain appeal: Free Will means that I am in control, Predestination means that a power and intelligence much greater than I is in control. But each also has it’s holes: how can a little mortal like me defy the will of the Almighty, the First Cause, the Father of Creation (the doctrine of Free Will assumes that it is God’s wish that all humanity be saved); but why would God determine that some people should enjoy the eternal beatitudes of Heaven while others suffer for all eternity?

And what about the Lutheran doctrine of justification by Faith Alone? According to Sola Fide, our salvation comes about through our faith in Christ, but that faith is beyond our power, since humanity is irredeemably tainted and by sin, and can only come about as a gift of the Holy Spirit. Anglican or no (Anglicanism is the Church both Catholic [Free Will] and Reformed [Predestination]), I am inclined toward Sola Fide. But that inclination is not for theological reasons (when it comes down to the theology I am split between the three of them), I just like Sola Fide. Is going with your gut a good way to pick a doctrine of salvation?

Maybe the answer is none of the above. Maybe, as some of my fellow comtemplative Christians argue, salvation is not at all what Christianity has historically envisaged. I guess it’s just something we all have to work out for ourselves.